After five World Cup Sprints, Lou Jeanmonnot, Suvi Minkkinen and Maren Kirkeeide lead the women’s World Cup Sprint Score, while Tommaso Giacomel, Sebastian Samuelsson and Eric Perrot top the men’s standings. With the high altitude of Antholz-Anterselva adding new variables, the picture of the favourites broadens.

The 2025/2026 season Sprint winners

Hanna Oeberg capitalised on both of her clean-shooting days with victories, making her the only athlete among women to win two Sprints in the 2025/2026 season. Elvira Oeberg, Lou Jeanmonnot and Suvi Minkkinen also claimed victories on days when they shot clean.

Giacomel is the only man with two Sprint wins this winter. He clinched the top spot with perfectly balanced performances in Hochfilzen. In Oberhof, he competed not only for himself but also for his tragically deceased friend Sivert Guttorm Bakken, drawing on otherworldly energies. Johan-Olav Botn won in Oestersund and would most probably have ranked in the top three in the Sprint Score had a virus not briefly halted his ascendancy, forcing him to skip Oberhof and Ruhpolding. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen surprisingly won in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand but was nowhere near the podium elsewhere, while Sebastian Samuelsson won the final Sprint before the Olympics in Ruhpolding.

Who else was on the podium

Jeanmonnot added two additional podiums, while Minkkinen claimed one. Anna Magnusson finished on the podium twice, with Kirkeeide, Océane Michelon, Dorothea Wierer, Julia Simon and Lisa Vittozzi each reaching the top three once. Dale-Skjevdal finished on the podium twice, while Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Emilien Jacquelin, Martin Uldal, Philipp Horn, Philipp Nawrath and Isak Leknes Frey reached the podium once. Giacomel is the only one of the four winners to have added an extra podium finish.

A brief Antholz-Anterselva throwback

In the 2024/2025 season, Jeanmonnot mastered the Antholz venue to complete a Sprint–Pursuit double win, while Hanna and Elvira Oeberg each collected two podiums there, though only Elvira reached the Sprint podium. Dorothea Wierer and Lisa Vittozzi also have positive memories, with Wierer’s Sprint victory in 2022/2023 a reminder that she can produce magic despite sleeping poorly, having a bad back day and waiting for her biathlon career to finally be over. Giacomel finished third in the Sprint in Antholz-Anterselva in 2024/2025, a result that will only boost his confidence. For Samuelsson, however, Antholz-Anterselva has been a nightmare venue: it is the only regular World Cup stop where he has yet to reach the podium. Worse still, he finished 21st in the Sprint there last season and 30th in 2022/2023, missing three shots on both occasions. Perrot placed eighth last season and Fillon Maillet 28th, but that will not worry Quentin too much — he collected the Sprint silver at the 2020 World Championships in Antholz.

What about Olympic experience?

Elvira Oeberg (silver) and Wierer (bronze) won Sprint medals at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and will be the only Sprint Olympic medallists in Italy. On the men’s side, Fillon Maillet has won an Olympic silver in the Sprint in Beijing 2022.

Photo: IBU/Vianney Thibaut, Ola Wizor, Nordic Focus